The Blue Workhorse

As we gather with family and friends on Memorial Day weekend, we must remember that nearly a third of the Major League Baseball season has passed us, and for those of you whose fantasy teams are faltering, there is still hope, but it is likely time to make some changes.

One successful method that could get you back in the running for your league title is the “buy low” strategy, in which you nab up or trade for underperforming players. Using split-statistics, in which the players statistics are divided up into each individual month or Pre/Post All-Star Break, here are a few players who might not appear to be overly appealing now, but as the weather heats up, these players seem to follow:

Opening Day is one of the most glorious days in sports, despite the fact that MLB tried to ruin it by having an opening series in Japan and then by having a one game series (yea, that’s not even possible Major League Baseball - a series means multiple) in Washington.

Now that all the teams and players have each put on the uniform for the first official games of the season, and to honor the first true day of the MLB schedule, we make initial observations on every team about what we saw on Opening Day after watching some games and examining boxscores:

This year the battle could be just as highly contested as only the San Francisco Giants won’t bring a high-caliber team to the field each and every day. Arizona won the division last season but went out and made some huge trades. Colorado rode a late season hot streak all the way to the World Series. San Diego is determined to return to the playoffs after losing their last three games cost them a trip last season, and the Dodgers are looking to end one of the longest World Series droughts in the franchise’s storied history.

Here are our previews and predictions for all five NL West teams including last year’s records, key additions, key losses, projected starting lineup, projected rotation, overall outlook, fantasy impact players, and our prediction for this season: